Look Ahead: Padres off to blazing start, but can it last?

Miller: Weekend Buzz

Two weeks into the season, and the Padres find themselves with the fourth-best record in baseball.

So maybe this is the week we should pay more attention to them. Or is this the week they start playing the way we thought they would and we can go back to ignoring them?

"Who knows?" general manager Kevin Towers said. "We're going to ride it as long as we can. I can't tell you if we're for real or not. Maybe we get going and these kids get some confidence. As of right now, they're starting to believe in themselves."

A reworked bullpen has helped Heath Bell pile up seven saves so far. (AP)

It's not just the kids who are starting to believe.

Over the weekend, 34-year-old second baseman David Eckstein told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the Padres remind him of the 2002 world champion Angels.

"That club was never out of any game, no matter what. These kind of teams are fun to play on, but we've got to keep it up."

The Padres don't really look like the '02 Angels. But they also don't look like the group that showed up in Peoria, Ariz., this spring.

After a rough winter that included a nasty breakup with longtime closer Trevor Hoffman and two near-trades of ace Jake Peavy, Towers and his staff got to spring training and realized that what they had wasn't nearly good enough.

They rebuilt their bullpen on the fly, to the point where five of the 12 pitchers on the opening day roster were guys who began spring training in other uniforms.

"It was panic, because we didn't like what we had," Towers said. "I told my wife that usually we're at 30, trying to get down to [the opening day limit of] 25. I was at 15, trying to get to 25."

The rebuilt bullpen has a 3.12 ERA, and has helped set up closer Heath Bell for seven saves.

There's a good chance you won't recognize many of the names. Luke Gregerson? Eulogio De La Cruz? Edward Mujica?

And how about Luis Perdomo? Until last Wednesday, when he became the fifth Padre to make his major league debut this year, neither Towers nor manager Bud Black had ever seen him throw a pitch.

Towers admits he was collecting pitchers that weren't going to make other teams. All he cared was that they were better than the guys he already had.

He'd love to believe now that they're as good as they've been for the first two weeks.

Is there any chance that's true? Is there any chance that the Padres can stay in the race and we won't spend July wondering whether Peavy will get traded?

Who knows?

The other stories to watch this week:

What's wrong with Wang: The Yankees have an off day Thursday, so they can easily skip Chien-Ming Wang's turn in the rotation. And while manager Joe Girardi didn't announce a decision Sunday, it's hard to believe that the Yankees would pitch Wang, as scheduled, on Saturday at Fenway Park.

The bigger question is how the Yankees fix their one-time (actually two-time) 19-game winner. Wang has an incredible 34.50 ERA through three starts, and one scout who watched him said simply, "There's no life on the sinker."

According to research through baseball-reference.com, Wang is just the second pitcher in the last 55 years to allow seven or more runs in three straight starts at the beginning of the season. The other was Jack Morris, who did it for the 1993 Blue Jays, when his career was basically over. Morris finished that season 7-12 with a 6.19 ERA.

The Yankees have lost Wang's three starts by a combined score of 44-14. Overall, they gave up 84 runs in their first 12 games, which according to baseball-reference.com, is the most runs any Yankee team has allowed in the first 12 games of a season.

What's wrong with the new parks? The Mets head out of town this week, so presumably this won't be the week that their hitters start complaining about Citi Field. But based on how big the new park is playing, and based on what has happened to other teams that opened big ballparks (Detroit, San Diego, Seattle), the complaining will start soon.

Already, opponents are talking.

"I wouldn't be overly excited about playing 81 games here as a hitter," Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

And Braun actually hit a home run in his first game at Citi Field.

The problem is different across town, where one scout said Sunday that the new Yankee Stadium is "the smallest park in baseball."

There's no doubt that line drives (but not high fly balls) seem to carry like crazy to right field and right-center field in the new park.

"I think everyone around baseball is noticing it," Johnny Damon said Sunday morning. "The ballpark definitely seems to be playing small right now."

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 17 home runs hit in the first three official games at Yankee Stadium are the most ever hit in the first three games at any stadium (and the previous high was only 13).

It will be interesting to see if the trend continues Monday and Tuesday, when the Yankees host the A's in the stadium's first two official night games (and with cooler weather forecast).

At home in Cleveland: Everything seems a little out of balance for the Indians, who somehow split four games in New York despite outscoring the Yankees 40-19. At least this week the Indians finally get to play at home.

They were home before, but only for three games against the Blue Jays.

"That was more of a road trip," manager Eric Wedge said. "Then we went back on the other road."

Despite Cleveland's 4-9 record and a shaky middle of the bullpen, Wedge insists the Indians will be fine.

"I've been doing this long enough that we know what we have out there," he said. "I believe in our players. I believe in our kids. Even when we were 0-5, the energy was great. The attitude was good. The fight was still there."